The present disclosure relates generally to knowledge management and, in particular, to methods, systems, and computer program products for implementing an integrated knowledge management system.
In recent years, many traditional telecommunication companies have transformed themselves from network transport providers to rich information and entertainment service providers. To facilitate this transition, these companies are building new network infrastructures. However, to fully support rich information and entertainment services, system infrastructures that support these diversified services (e.g., wireless and wireline), as well as applications (e.g., IP telephone, data, and IP video applications) need to be established and/or enhanced.
One of such supporting infrastructures is in the knowledge management domain of the service provider's customer care organization. For example, in the telecommunications industry, a customer care organization provides assistance to its customers and/or prospective customers, such as provisioning telecommunications services, providing information concerning service offerings, product offerings, account information, and technical support, to name a few.
Knowledge management has been defined as a process for gathering and organizing information for subsequent use. An efficient way to supply relevant information to a knowledge consumer may enable the service provider to reduce overall support costs. Some service providers utilize industry standard models in developing business and operations support systems (BSS/OSS), e.g., enhanced Telecommunications Operations Map (eTOM) and Telecommunications Management Network (TMN). However, what continues to be lacking from these models is a cohesive knowledge management reference framework that addresses the collective needs of knowledge consumers across varying platforms by supporting knowledge consumption for varying access channels utilized by end consumers, as well as support agents and field technicians of the service provider.
Using telecommunications services as an example, knowledge consumption needs are typically segmented according to business organizations (e.g., wireline services versus wireless services). Requirements for implementing an end-to-end knowledge management system are oftentimes developed by a respective business owner that does not leverage existing knowledge bases and is known to employ specific login restrictions to limit other business organizations in consuming the domain knowledge. For example, in the wireline group, multiple knowledge management systems may be developed to support self service channels and assisted care channels, while in the wireless group a different set of knowledge management systems may be implemented to support these corresponding channels.
Furthermore, some service providers implement different knowledge management systems based on product lines. For example, in some instances when a new product organization is established, system designers may not have a clear roadmap to follow and thus may end up developing duplicate sets of information into a new knowledge management system. Many service providers today are known to use a traditional content creation environment that utilizes dedicated Methods and Procedures (M&P) writers to create content in a formal process. Informal content, such as customer relationship management (CRM) notes, Web 2.0 blogs, wikis, and communities are typically ignored. Additionally, there is no easy way to integrate diagnostic, testing and CRM systems with the knowledge management systems. Thus, it becomes difficult to present relevant content to the users in the right context.
What is needed, therefore, is a way to provide a common, shared knowledge management infrastructure accessible via varying communications channels to a knowledge consumption base.